Mangalore : The much-beleaguered Shiradi Ghat stretch of Mangalore–Bangalore highway (NH 75) will get a new coating from March, which will be a “permanent solution” for the road that is battered during the monsoon, said Minister for Public Works Department H.C. Mahadevappa on Sunday.

Addressing presspersons at Gundia after a visit to Shiradi Ghat, the Minister said 47-km of the road would be redone at an estimated cost of Rs. 95.54 crore. The project had received the approval of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, and the process of calling tenders had begun, he said.

Of the expenditure, Rs. 49.1 crore would be spent on reconstructing 33.3 km of asphalt road, while Rs. 46.43 would be spent on concretising 13.6 km at the core portion of the ghat, said Mr. Mahadevappa.

With laboratory tests showing that jelly stones used in aspalting the road disintegrates by absorbing water, the State government decided to concretise the stretch of the road that receives the most rain – calculated to the tune of 5,000mm to 7,000mm rain – said the Minister.
Diversion of traffic

The project was expected to take nearly 20 months to complete, and until that time, potholes on the existing road had been patched at a cost of Rs. 5 crore, he said.

When the work begins, the traffic on NH 75 would be diverted through Charmadi Ghat, on NH 234.

To ensure there were no delays on this stretch, Srinivas Murthy, a technical expert from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), had been roped in for the improvement of Charmadi Ghat to handle the additional traffic, said Mr. Mahadevappa.

His report suggests that the widening of 39 spots on NH 234 at Charmadi ghat, and work would be undertaken immediately, said the Minister.

Meanwhile, he added that tenders had been floated for the development of the 27-km stretch at Sampaje Ghat on the Mangalore-Madikeri road.